Speaker - Gonzalo Himiob Santome

Geneva Summit Speaker - Gonzalo Himiob Santome

Gonzalo Himiob Santomé is a Criminology, Victimology and Criminal Law Professor and a writer and lecturer on human rights issues. He is a founding partner of Venezuelan law firm Rosich, Himiob, Romero & Associates, where he has been responsible for coordinating legal action and defense on several cases relating to political persecution in Venezuela. Among these cases has been the representation of victims of human rights violations on April 11, 2002, the defense of merchants, sailors and oil workers illegally arrested during the national strike in 2002-03, and work for prominent individuals like the former Venezuelan Minister of Finance, General Francisco Usón, Captain Otto Gebauer, General Angel Vivas, former judge Mónica Fernández Sánchez, student leader Yon Goicoechea (2008 Milton Friedman prize laureate), and journalist Roger Santodomingo. He is also a founding member of NGO VIVE (Venezuelan Victims of Human Rights Violations) and of the Foro Penal Venezolano, an NGO that monitors the Venezuelan criminal justice system, especially cases involving political prisoners. Foro Penal’s monitoring work has been referenced by the State Department’s Venezuela Country Report on Human Rights since its founding in 2004. Mr. Himiob also acts as legal advisor to the Student Movement in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador, and to several other NGOs.

On June 25, 2002 Mr. Himiob filed a legal action at the Venezuelan Supreme Court with other lawyers, requesting a formal investigation of human rights violations in April 2002 in Venezuela, during the protest march against the Venezuelan Government. Due to the lack of action in the Venezuelan Supreme Court, Mr. Himiob and his team were the first Venezuelan lawyers to take action at the Interamerican Commission of Human Rights regarding this issue and they were the first Latin American lawyers to denounce a sitting president at the International Criminal Court (The Hague) for crimes against humanity, based on the Rome Statute.

 

In2007 he was responsible for the initiative of writing and presenting to the Venezuelan National Assembly the “Amnesty and Reconciliation Law”, which on December 31, 2007, brought about the Government Law Decree of Amnesty. That decree resulted in the closing of several criminal investigations due to political reasons and the release of several political prisoners.

Mr. Himiob is the defending lawyer of six of the “Caracas Nine”, who are politically persecuted Venezuelan citizens listed as such by the Human Rights Foundation based in New York.

He is now representing several of the student leaders that are currently under criminal investigation due to their involvement in the different protests against the reform and amendment of the Venezuelan Constitution in December 2007 and February 2009.

As a consequence of Mr. Himiob's human rights activism, both in the Venezuelan and in the international justice systems, the Venezuelan Government has labeled him a “Traitor to the Nation” and “Conspirator against the Government”. In July 2003, the President of Venezuela himself requested the Supreme Court to open a criminal investigation against him, his legal team, and the victims they represent. In addition, Mr. Himiob has recently been suffering attacks from a well known Venezuelan journalist and host of a TV show broadcast nationwide on the major state TV station, because he is representing Eligio Cedeño, another political prisoner in Venezuela.

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